The Republic was disbanded at the 2nd All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets on 20 March 1918 when the independence of Soviet Ukraine was announced. It failed to achieve recognition, either internationally or by the Russian SFSR and in accordance with the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was abolished.

The legacy of the Donetsk–Krivoy Rog Soviet Republic was revived during the War in Donbass that began in 2014. On 5 February 2015, the legislature of the unrecognized separatist Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) adopted a memorandum declaring the DPR to be the legal successor to the Donetsk–Krivoy Rog Soviet Republic, with Artyom as its founding father.[5]

^A black-blue-red tricolour has widely been attributed to the Donetsk–Krivoy Rog Republic, and is used in 2014-2015 by organizations such as the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic. There is no historical record of this flag having been used in 1918, however, and the tricolour is believed to have originated with the International Movement for Donbass in the 1980s.[1][2][3]

^Maxim Edwards (9 June 2014). "Symbolism of the Donetsk People’s Republic". openDemocracy. Retrieved 9 February 2015. But Vladimir Kornilov, the world’s leading – and only – specialist on the short-lived state (and author of The Assassinated Dream, a book on its history), does not agree. ... The myths that grew around the Republic, [Kornilov] added, led to distorted views of its history, and ‘pictures of some flag which was never actually used.’ In fact, the flag used by the Donetsk People’s Republic is, with alterations, that of the International Movement for Donbas or the Interdvizheniye Donbasa, an organisation whose roots started only in August 1989, in a lecture theatre of Donetsk University.